Around the home

Have you ever been at your door, ready to leave and then you see something that's not in the right place so you just have to go and put it where it belongs? I’m like that. I don’t like to leave my home until everything is organized. I don’t want to see clutter or dirty dishes or mess on the table, which is great until I realize that I’m five minutes late everywhere I go and when I can’t fix everything it bothers me. Sometimes I need to practice a little self-forgiveness when it comes to home cleaning and organizing. I need to understand that no matter how hard I try to keep my house organized, it won’t look perfect all the time and that’s ok.

A clean and organized house is great, but losing your peace over it isn’t. Not being able to enjoy time with family and friends because you couldn’t clean the whole house isn’t right. So I started thinking about what I could do to let go of that desire for everything to look perfect at all times. Here are some things I came up with, maybe they can help you get your list started:

-Choose one day a week for cleaning:For someone like me, who likes everything organized and very clean it could be easy to lose a lot of time cleaning every day, so I decided to do major cleaning one day a week. I do quick touch ups every morning, but if I see something that would take a little longer and can wait I put it off until the cleaning day. I want a clean and organized house, but I don’t want that to be the priority of my life.

-Make it easy to keep a place organized: If everything has a place where it should be, then it is easy for your family and friends to also keep the home organized. The responsibility is not only for one person; it is a team effort and everyone gets to enjoy the results.

-Set a date and do it: If you have a special project or a chore you need to do, stop repeating over and over that you have to do it, give it a date and then don’t talk about it until it’s time to do it. All that talking steals your energy and feeds something very dangerous called “dread.” When you dread something you are reminding yourself over and over of the thing you don’t want, you are polluting your present with something that hasn’t even happened.

-Be in the moment: If friends or family drop by unannounced and your house is not up to your standards, don’t over apologize. It is annoying when the people who are around you only hear how sorry you are because your house is messy. They came to see you and to enjoy the moment with you, so let it go, say it once and just enjoy the moment in good company.

Sometimes this idea that we can do it all steals our peace and weighs down on us. Some days you will look at your home before you leave and everything will be in the right place, but others it may look like a battle field. The important thing is not to let a little mess affect your day. The mess can be cleaned up later, but your day can’t be replaced.